WHAT’S NEW AS OF JUNE 2013?

Note from the Editor

Integrated Distribution Planning: A path to sustaining growth

For years, the cumulative amount of distributed generation (DG) on the grid was akin to a drop of water in a glass. That is, a tiny drop in a big glass. But look how far we’ve come in the past few years. Last year the U.S. installed more than 90,000 photovoltaic installations, with a total capacity of 3.3 GW. This represents an 80% increase over installations completed in 2011. If we were to sustain this growth rate, we could expect to see close to 20 GW of solar installed in 2015.

This is great news for distributed generation industries, but how do we plan for that kind of growth? In highly active DG states, we are already seeing stalled DG development, as distribution circuits surpass the ubiquitous 15% penetration level that serves as a review checkpoint in most state interconnection procedures. As a result, it’s becoming increasingly difficult for developers to find circuits with available capacity to host additional DG.

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While customer-sited net metering and interconnection policies are primarily addressed at the state level, they are also becoming important on a regional basis. This newsletter has been designed to provide state-level policy updates and capture emerging regional trends.Connecting to the Grid is a free, electronic newsletter published each month by the Interstate Renewable Energy Council, Inc. (IREC). Click here to subscribe.